There are few more important historic sites than Fort Totten in the story of the military experience on the northern plains. Fewer still tell so much of the history of the turbulent and complex relationship between the Euro-American people who now predominate in the United States and the Native people who first inhabited this continent. From its establishment as a military post in 1867 to the closure of the reservation community school at the old post in 1959, Fort Totten reflects not just federal Indian policy, but the endurance of Indian communities and their continuing efforts to control their own fate.